Chapter 5 - The East Service Hall
My eyes snapped open.
Before Caroline could drive the blunt plastic tip of the syringe into the IV port on my arm, I grabbed her wrist with both hands and twisted with every ounce of adrenaline left in my poisoned body.
Caroline gasped, dropping the syringe. It clattered against the linoleum.
"Make a sound and I’ll scream for the guard," I hissed, yanking her down across the bed rail until her face was inches from mine. "Do you think Briggs works for you, Caroline? He works for Grant. If you scream, he won’t save you—he’ll clean up both of us."
Tears streamed down her foundation-caked cheeks. "You don't understand... he has my sister. He has Chloe."
"What?"
"Grant didn't just marry me for the Pierce name," Caroline sobbed silently, her chest heaving against the metal railing. "My family is broke, but Chloe works at the probate registry in Dover. Grant needed Chloe to forge Dad’s signature on the trust transfer. When Chloe refused last week, Grant... he locked her in the sub-basement of the Grand Plaza. In the old boiler room behind the east service hall."
The note Maisie found flashed in my mind: *East service hall.*
The note wasn't an order to kill me. It was Helena’s desperate attempt to tell someone where the bodies were buried.
"He told my mother that if she created a scene and knocked your drink over, he’d let Chloe go," Caroline whispered. "He lied. He poisoned your drink himself while Helena was walking across the floor. He used my mother’s hatred of you as a distraction so no one would see you go into shock!"
"Where is the keycard to the service corridors?" I demanded.
Caroline reached into her purse with a trembling hand and pulled out a heavy brass master key and a silver magnetic badge stamped with the hotel’s lion crest. "He keeps Chloe tied to the secondary steam pipes. He said if the money didn't clear by sunrise, he’d vent the pressure valve."
"Mommy?"
Maisie was awake, sitting upright on the sofa, her eyes wide with terror as she took in Caroline pinned against my bed.
I let Caroline go. "Maisie, grab your coat. We're leaving."
"Claire, you can’t go through the door," Caroline said, rubbing her bruised wrists. "Briggs has a gun. He has orders to keep you in this bed until Grant arrives with the medical transport van at five."
I looked at the window. We were on the third floor, but outside the glass ran a broad concrete maintenance ledge leading to the fire escape overlooking the rear alley.
"Caroline," I said, sliding out of bed and ripping the IV catheter from my skin. Blood welled up, but I ignored it. "If you want your sister alive, you’re going to walk out that door, slap Briggs across the face, and tell him I’m having a cardiac seizure."
"He’ll kill me," she breathed.
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"No, he won't," I said coldly, looking her dead in the eye. "He can't kill the bride on her wedding night without explaining it to Grant. Give me five minutes. That’s all Chloe has."
***
